Here's what the past 24 hours has brought:
1. Chefetz Chashud - Gila noticed (yay Gila!) a suitcase sitting in front of our building. Just sitting there. She called the emergency number and the police came by. It was nothing, but for a few minutes there....
2. Carwash - yes, I did it. I asked around and found a carwash in back of some other store. In a small country, EVERYTHING is in back of something. Asked the guy for a "club card" and got my car washed and also learned that I should tip the car drying person and did that. Have no idea if I tipped him too much or too little. Well, he didn't run after me screaming and shaking his fist, but he also didn't tear off his Car Wash shirt, scream "I'm quitting!" and run away laughing. So maybe it was just the right amount.
3. Spitting and bagging - groceries, that is. No, I didn't spit on the groceries. Every time I go to the store I get nervous at the bagging part. You have to do it yourself and those darn bags don't always open so easily. So I have learned to lick my finger and thumb in order to get just the right kind of grab on that little bag so it opens. Isn't that pleasant? But it is never fast enough and no matter how small my order I am always muttering under my breath and huffing and puffing trying to bag as fast as possible while the impatient cashier and the customer behind me looks at me like (here we go, you should be used to this by now), I'm an idiot.
4. Two long awaited phone calls. I got a call in Ulpan from the a/c fixer guy who has yet to put a vent cover on the vent in my bathroom, leaving a lovely gaping hole in the wall. He finally called me and he only speaks Hebrew. What luck, I was in Ulpan so the entire class could hear me bungling the Hebrew. Afterwards (yes, after, so that didn't really help me) the teacher told me what the words were - but she was so nice about it and said that if anything like that happened again I should call her. I asked her to move in with me for the next five years.
The second call - you are going to love this - was from the Post Office. About a month ago I contacted them to ask them to deliver gask masks to me. Right after I filled out the form on the internet I got a phone call (wow! efficient! they must be worried about us really needing these things!). The woman spokeveryfasthebrewandIcouldn'tunderstandawordofit. So I asked if I could speak in English. She said that "someone would call me back."
That was four weeks ago. I got a call back today. "Hello! I am from the Post Office! I am calling you about your gas masks! I am speaking English!" Seriously, that is what she said. All I could think of was that thank God there hadn't been a war. I informed her that I had gone to Holon all by my little self (well, with friends) to get my own darn gas mask. "Great!" she said. Oh brother.
5. Flag for Yom HaAtzmaut. Everyone puts Israeli flags on their cars. I was leaving the supermarket and the man (who for some reason no one has figured out is hired to stand there and stamp your receipt before you leave) pointed to the bin of flags and said that they were only 4 shekel! Now I knew that Gila had already purchased a flag for me so I said no, I already had one. Then he got the saddest look on his face, "Gveret, rak arba shekalim! Arba! Arba!" I mean what a show. So of course I bought one. I had to make the Receipt Stamper happy.
6. Ulpan / Yom HaZikaron: We were told today that on Yom HaZikaron the entire Ulpan will be going to the military section of the Modiin cemetery to have a tekes (ceremony) near the graves of fallen soldiers from Modiin. That really touched me.
We are coming up on a very big week for the entire Jewish people - Yom haShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzmaut. I'm ready -with a clean car, bagged groceries, gas masks and a flag. Very Israeli.
1. Chefetz Chashud - Gila noticed (yay Gila!) a suitcase sitting in front of our building. Just sitting there. She called the emergency number and the police came by. It was nothing, but for a few minutes there....
2. Carwash - yes, I did it. I asked around and found a carwash in back of some other store. In a small country, EVERYTHING is in back of something. Asked the guy for a "club card" and got my car washed and also learned that I should tip the car drying person and did that. Have no idea if I tipped him too much or too little. Well, he didn't run after me screaming and shaking his fist, but he also didn't tear off his Car Wash shirt, scream "I'm quitting!" and run away laughing. So maybe it was just the right amount.
3. Spitting and bagging - groceries, that is. No, I didn't spit on the groceries. Every time I go to the store I get nervous at the bagging part. You have to do it yourself and those darn bags don't always open so easily. So I have learned to lick my finger and thumb in order to get just the right kind of grab on that little bag so it opens. Isn't that pleasant? But it is never fast enough and no matter how small my order I am always muttering under my breath and huffing and puffing trying to bag as fast as possible while the impatient cashier and the customer behind me looks at me like (here we go, you should be used to this by now), I'm an idiot.
4. Two long awaited phone calls. I got a call in Ulpan from the a/c fixer guy who has yet to put a vent cover on the vent in my bathroom, leaving a lovely gaping hole in the wall. He finally called me and he only speaks Hebrew. What luck, I was in Ulpan so the entire class could hear me bungling the Hebrew. Afterwards (yes, after, so that didn't really help me) the teacher told me what the words were - but she was so nice about it and said that if anything like that happened again I should call her. I asked her to move in with me for the next five years.
The second call - you are going to love this - was from the Post Office. About a month ago I contacted them to ask them to deliver gask masks to me. Right after I filled out the form on the internet I got a phone call (wow! efficient! they must be worried about us really needing these things!). The woman spokeveryfasthebrewandIcouldn'tunderstandawordofit. So I asked if I could speak in English. She said that "someone would call me back."
That was four weeks ago. I got a call back today. "Hello! I am from the Post Office! I am calling you about your gas masks! I am speaking English!" Seriously, that is what she said. All I could think of was that thank God there hadn't been a war. I informed her that I had gone to Holon all by my little self (well, with friends) to get my own darn gas mask. "Great!" she said. Oh brother.
5. Flag for Yom HaAtzmaut. Everyone puts Israeli flags on their cars. I was leaving the supermarket and the man (who for some reason no one has figured out is hired to stand there and stamp your receipt before you leave) pointed to the bin of flags and said that they were only 4 shekel! Now I knew that Gila had already purchased a flag for me so I said no, I already had one. Then he got the saddest look on his face, "Gveret, rak arba shekalim! Arba! Arba!" I mean what a show. So of course I bought one. I had to make the Receipt Stamper happy.
6. Ulpan / Yom HaZikaron: We were told today that on Yom HaZikaron the entire Ulpan will be going to the military section of the Modiin cemetery to have a tekes (ceremony) near the graves of fallen soldiers from Modiin. That really touched me.
We are coming up on a very big week for the entire Jewish people - Yom haShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzmaut. I'm ready -with a clean car, bagged groceries, gas masks and a flag. Very Israeli.
Fair warning: the receipt stamper guy will try to sell you other things. You CAN say no. I know you can! It will be super Israeli of you.
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